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Azhar Movie Review: Interesting, engaging but not exciting

Emraan Hashmi is back with 'Azhar', 2016 sports biographical film based on the life of India's former captain Mohammad Azharuddin. The movie is interesting, engaging but struggles hard to be exciting enough.

Emraan Hashmi is back with 'Azhar', 2016 sports biographical film based on the life of India's former captain Mohammad Azharuddin. The movie is interesting, engaging but struggles hard to be exciting enough.

'Azhar' remains interesting due to factual data, engaging due to variations pushed in by the director, fails excitement due to lack of cricket in it. We are talking about India's former skipper Mohammad Azharuddin – the man who led Team India in three World Cups – and we are showing cricket with a tight hand during the play; a huge embarrassment for all the cricket and Emraan Hashmi fans.

The film mostly remains on the emotional side and when it tries to poke geners like comedy, tragedy and sports; the whole drama turns out to be a mismatch and results in being an amateur dish.

While research over script also seems compromised, the detailing about Azhar's character is worth praising. From standing collars to Azhar’s trademark walking style, Emraan Hashmi manages well to stay in Azhar's shoes.

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It's all-in-all Emraan Hashmi movie as his female leads Nargis Fakhri and Prachi Desai didn't get much to offer from their respective characters of Azhar’s wives. Kunaal Roy Kapur do manages to grab attention but then he is always sharing screen with Emraan and this doesn't give him an individual space to perform. Lara Dutta also justifies her character.

With so many characters in cast, it becomes a need to keep audiences stick with one motive or else the acts do get compromised. This is the real problem that gets served with Azhar; on a backdrop of match fixing, movie never sticks to one intention. First half seems reserved for Azhar's first wife, latter for the second wife. Amid this we get the real thing in glimpse and that leaves audiences enough space to let their excitement for the film fly away.

And the trend continues, songs do save a lot for the film. This has become a trademark for Emraan Hashmi that even if his movies fail on box office, the songs will stay on top of charts. The same happens in this one with "Itni Si Baat Hain" and "Bol Do Na Zara" running high on charts.

It’s an emotional tangle! From grandfather's wish to see Azhar playing 100 Tests, which gets thwart with a ban after his 99th match, to friends and family action; the film is stitched with sheer emotions.

Final verdict: Emraan Hashmi's charm mixed with Azharuddin's style set a hard game for audiences to accept and get entertained. Watch it only if you are a true Emraan Hashmi fan.

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